Saturday, December 17, 2011

Today was Steve’s family Christmas get-together. It was the first chance his aunts got to meet Mara. She was definitely the belle of the ball - at no point was I forced to take her, which is my favorite way to spend a day. I finished Steve’s mom’s pillow last night (when she opened it, I’m pretty sure there were tears...), and I made her a pair of socks in 2 weeks as a surprise. She sent us a pre-Christmas package almost a month ago with stockings and a nativity set for the kids, some candy, and enough sock yarn to make 2 pairs of socks. She asked if I would use one set of yarn to make her a pair of socks, though she said after the new year would be fine. I finished the second sock at the party - I wanted to make sure they were long enough before finishing off the second sock.

While there, I mentioned that we had about 7 Christmas ornaments, in response to Steve opening an ornament. So after the white elephant swap, Tim (Steve’s mom’s husband) gave us the gift he got: 3 handmade ornaments in a decorated tin. Then, as we were getting ready to leave, Kim (Steve’s aunt) offered us some ornaments that she had bought a while ago on clearance. She said if we wanted them, we could have them, if not, she wouldn’t be offended. I took them, because... well, why not?Gabriel decorated the tree all by himself. All of the ornaments are hung on the bead garlands.

I put up the stockings with only a little help.

Tomorrow is the s&b Christmas party. We are doing a yarn swap. I am nervous that the person I got won’t like the yarn I bought. Not for any particular reason, just because I am always nervous about things like that. She said green and purple, so hopefully she likes it. Also, the questionnaire was LOTR-themed. I’m hoping the name tag looks kinda like an elf-y leaf, and the packaging looks suitably elf-y. I am also going to make a set of stitch markers to go in the package.Still working on the quilts. Figured out what to make Bryan. Need to finish up the cook books, now that I (finally) got the recipes to finish them up. I think that is all that is left...Seri’s afghan is done. Bane’s beanie is done.

MARA HAS NOT NURSED IN 40 HOURS!!!! Can you tell I am excited? I told her grammy, so hopefully babies will begin to be stolen for weekends. ALSO!!!! Gabriel went 8 hours without an accident. Yay!Steve hasn’t found out about his foot, because he won’t personally go pick up his test results.

I got my stuff from my recipe swap partner! Yay! I love the wash cloth - it is a penguin! I plan on making the cookies with Mandi’s kids. (I’m trying to figure out things for them to do on their visit, so I don’t have to endure much whining. Not that her kids are particularly whiny, but bored kids generally are.) I’m also going to force the kids to help me stuff cat toys.

Also, I sent a very nice woman a 500 word story in exchange for 3 skeins of hand spun/hand dyed yarn. She sent me TWELVE skeins! Plus a hand sewn plush, and a plastic bag holder. Be jealous.